Join me to hear the story of Officer Timothy Horwath of California Highway Patrol who also happens to be a pedophile living on Data Drive. While I discuss that Officer Horwath was caught with child pornography, I try not to get into the subject material itself for those that may be sensitive to this subject. If you thought being caught with child pornography would be bad enough for Officer Horwath, you won’t believe what he does while he is out on bond before trial! This is eCrimeBytes Season 2 Episode 14 Act 2 – Officer Timothy Horwath Sentenced For Child Pornography – Act 2: The Balls.
For the background, please see Act 1:
Sources:
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/former-chp-officer-sentenced-10-years-prison-receipt-child-pornography
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16565821/united-states-v-horwath/
Transcript:
00:00:10:01 – 00:00:32:36
Keith
Hey, welcome back to eCrimeBytes Season two, Episode 14. This is Officer Timothy Horwath is sentenced for child pornography. We last left you and the investigation. So they found a laptop in a California Highway Patrol bag in Officer Horwath’s garage. And when they analyzed it, had a bunch of child porn on it. And
00:00:32:36 – 00:00:37:23
Keith
we’re talking young like four, five, six, seven years old.
00:00:37:28 – 00:00:49:15
Keith
They also found a phone. It had communication with young girls, one of which was verifiably under 18 and had a bunch of child porn on this phone, too. And that was on him when they searched him.
00:00:49:15 – 00:00:58:17
Keith
So at this point, I left you with his arrest. So they arrested him. And I told you that we’re coming back to act two, which is this act, and it’s entitled The Balls.
00:00:58:17 – 00:01:19:49
Keith
And you will find out why. Because you would hope that in this situation, Officer Horwath would stop what he was doing and say, Holy shit, that was horrible. I should never do this again. But he doesn’t. He does something completely different and I’m going to tell you what it is and here in a second. So after the arrest, he’s released.
00:01:19:51 – 00:01:47:34
Keith
This is very common. I mean, common in the criminal world where someone will have a bond that they pay and they’re able to get out with some conditions prior to trial. So his conditions for this release in December 11th of 2018 were $100,000 bond from his father. Plus, he had a promise to not view or possess child pornography, and then that had to be a fucking stretch for him
00:01:47:34 – 00:01:48:11
Keith
I imagine
00:01:48:11 – 00:02:11:35
Keith
he must not access the internet and he must supply proof of disconnection or termination of his Internet service to his pretrial services off officer. So he has to show some type of proof of a Comcast said I disconnected my cable modem or Verizon Fios says that I disconnected my router or whatever type of paperwork that they’ll give you for that.
00:02:11:40 – 00:02:24:34
Keith
They also say you must not possess a computer or any device device capable of accessing the Internet in your residence or anywhere else unless it’s approved by the officer,
00:02:24:34 – 00:02:24:55
Keith
So
00:02:24:55 – 00:02:32:02
Keith
what I imagine is this officer is not going to say, Yeah, yeah, it’s all right, Timothy, you can have a phone because of what he was caught doing.
00:02:32:02 – 00:02:42:23
Keith
They also go on. All electronic devices in the home in which he lives, has to be password protected and kept in a locked room, which he doesn’t have access to.
00:02:42:23 – 00:02:52:36
Keith
That lock installed on it within one week of this release. So all said and done within a week of him stepping out of jail.
00:02:52:40 – 00:02:55:29
Keith
All this stuff should be implemented that I just read you.
00:02:55:29 – 00:03:06:29
Keith
They also said you must not loiter or be found within 100 feet of any schoolyard park, playground, arcade, movie theater, or any place primarily used by children under the age of 18.
00:03:06:29 – 00:03:19:41
Keith
You must not associate or have verbal written, telephonic electronic communication with any person who is under the age of 18 except in presence of an adult who is the parent or legal guardian of that minor.
00:03:19:41 – 00:03:21:18
Keith
These things seem like basic
00:03:21:18 – 00:03:26:48
Keith
adult requirements that they had to put in as conditions of his release.
00:03:26:48 – 00:03:39:34
Keith
They go on and say, You must not be employed or participate in any volunteer activities, which brings you into contact with kids. You must not have contact with your own minor children without
00:03:39:34 – 00:03:41:58
Keith
the approval of pretrial services,
00:03:41:58 – 00:03:46:05
Keith
and you must not have any contact with any victim or any other witnesses.
00:03:46:05 – 00:03:46:57
Keith
In this case.
00:03:46:57 – 00:03:55:44
Keith
It sounds like a lengthy list, but a lot of it sounds to me like common sense, especially if you were just accused of having child pornography.
00:03:55:44 – 00:04:11:59
Keith
So with this list, do you think Timothy Horwath behaves? Of course not, because I’m putting something on the screen for you right now, which is his Snapchat profile. Now, I put his mug shot there sort of off to the left hand side there to compare for you.
00:04:12:04 – 00:04:40:32
Keith
His Snapchat profile looks a little younger, slimmer and more agile than his real picture. I would say. And this is December of 22. So he is very much going against all these conditions that he agreed to to be released after he was arrested. I still can’t get over that picture. And his username was ro221096 and I imagine ro was the beginning of his last name.
00:04:40:32 – 00:04:42:55
Keith
Horwath. That’s my guess.
00:04:42:55 – 00:04:47:32
Keith
So yeah. So investigators find that and
00:04:47:32 – 00:04:51:11
Keith
you know, they do a little digging and they find out that, you know,
00:04:51:11 – 00:05:07:04
Keith
there was a phone number associated with this Snapchat account, this ro221096 account. There’s this phone number that ends in 5850 when they did a little investigation on that that belonged to Timothy Horwath.
00:05:07:09 – 00:05:25:23
Keith
Records also reviewed revealed that the device that logged in to Snapchat was an Apple iPhone 14 comma six, which is just kind of a techie way of saying the version number don’t worry too much about the version number. It was an Apple iPhone that connected. So a device he shouldn’t be using.
00:05:25:23 – 00:05:41:12
Keith
They said the IP address, which is the numerical computer address, sort of like a an address on your house that logged into the Snapchat account for ro221096.
00:05:41:17 – 00:06:08:01
Keith
It belonged to a Comcast Internet subscriber, Timothy Horwath. So he still has a subscription to Comcast and Internet service, which also is against everything that I read to you in as conditions of release. And it’s at his residence on data drive in Rancho Cordova, Data drive for a pedophile. Jesus, I didn’t listen. I didn’t look for that. That just made its way into the story.
00:06:08:01 – 00:06:11:09
Keith
That doesn’t happen very often. Okay.
00:06:11:09 – 00:06:45:14
Keith
Now, when we looked at the records further, Comcast says, yeah, he’s been a he’s been a subscriber since September 24th, 2021. Now, I just told you his Snapchat account was December of 22, so he’s been a subscriber for a fucking long time. This didn’t just pop up overnight either. Now I got a copy of the data that Snapchat gave back when they basically there was a whole court order process where they say, Hey, we want to know who’s behind this IP address or this this account.
00:06:45:19 – 00:07:03:47
Keith
And Snapchat gives them the evidence back. And this is what you’re seeing on the screen. This is what Snapchat gave back to the police officers. And I just thought you might find it interesting. This is verbatim the type of information that law enforcement will get back when they ask these questions. And I’m answering for you in the episodes we bring you
00:07:03:47 – 00:07:06:13
Keith
and you can see there he lives on data drive.
00:07:06:18 – 00:07:07:17
Keith
I did not make that up.
00:07:07:17 – 00:07:33:49
Keith
Okay. So law enforcement starts to do a little surveillance. They know where he lives. They know he’s doing all this, that he’s probably doing all this shit. They’re going to catch him in the act. So on December 22, they did little surveillance around him and they find a mobile device charging cable, which appeared to be an Apple iPhone charging cable like the iPhone I just told you about, plugged into his Toyota vehicle, which was parked near his residence on data drive.
00:07:33:49 – 00:07:56:35
Keith
You would think if he knew he shouldn’t have electronics devices, he would at least hide the cable. But he didn’t. He he didn’t hide the cable. He bought Comcast in his own name. And it yeah, that’s why this is called the balls. Okay. So about a month later, on January 7th, 2023, surveillance team saw that the defendant was using a smartphone that appeared to be
00:07:56:35 – 00:08:00:14
Keith
a iPhone while he was at Walmart.
00:08:00:19 – 00:08:22:14
Keith
And he appeared to be delivering items from a Walmart store. I don’t know if he worked for Walmart or he worked for like a service that picks things up and delivers on like, I don’t know, GrubHub comes the top of my mind when you need things where they go out and pick up actual non-food items for you. That that’s what it sounded like here.
00:08:22:19 – 00:08:43:57
Keith
But he had an iPhone on him, which is the important part of this case, because he was not supposed to have any devices. So five days later, on January 13th and 2023, surveillance also saw Horwath inside a Target store in the electronics section. So probably the one place in Target he should not be other than maybe the children’s clothing section.
00:08:44:02 – 00:08:58:34
Keith
He was discussing topics with a Target employee such as purchasing a SIM card. The price prepaid phone service cards, their cost, data limits and so on. All shit he should not be asking about while he’s under pretrial release.
00:08:58:34 – 00:09:10:41
Keith
Agents also heard him speaking with an Infinity representative, which is Comcast, which is they do internet giving his account number, his credit card payment information and requesting to activate a phone.
00:09:10:41 – 00:09:11:34
Keith
Crazy, right?
00:09:11:34 – 00:09:24:43
Keith
Also heard a Target employee speaking with consumer consumer cellular saying that the defendant, Horwath, had bought a phone with him and was attempting to set it up and transfer account data.
00:09:24:43 – 00:09:33:51
Keith
All these things are things that he agreed he would not do that he’s definitely doing and he’s in public doing it. And police officers have seen him do it through surveillance.
00:09:33:51 – 00:09:41:24
Keith
So you knew it was going to catch up with him? February 22nd of 2023. They searched Horwath’s place again and
00:09:41:24 – 00:09:56:27
Keith
they found he was in possession of an iPhone SE in his right front pocket. So he can’t say, that made it into my house somehow. It was on him. A consumer cellular clamshell flip phone model within his right front pocket.
00:09:56:27 – 00:10:01:09
Keith
So another phone, two phones on him. Again, he’s not even supposed to have one.
00:10:01:09 – 00:10:17:40
Keith
They also found he was a possession of another iPhone unknown model with a SIM card in it in a bottom drawer of a nightstand. And if you’re trying to picture these hold on a second, I got pictures of all this stuff. He has an LG phone model located in the bottom drawer of the nightstand.
00:10:17:45 – 00:10:23:33
Keith
Further, he has an iPad located in the top drawer of a nightstand. He has another
00:10:23:33 – 00:10:38:16
Keith
consumer cellular clamshell flip phone, located in the bottom drawer of the nightstand. He has a T-Mobile T9 cellular wireless hotspot. Again, another device where you can get on the Internet he’s not supposed to have.
00:10:38:21 – 00:10:47:36
Keith
And that was located in the nightstand in this Alcatel Consumer Cellular Clamshell flip phone was located inside the product box, inside his bedroom.
00:10:47:36 – 00:11:07:11
Keith
God. Okay. So if you stop there and you’re like, Holy shit, that is just a ton of bad stuff. This is what made my skin crawl. They found a 2014 2015 Shasta High School ID card of somebody who was under the age of 18 in his residence
00:11:07:11 – 00:11:14:43
Keith
when they went and did their investigation and said, Hey, you know this guy that has your I.D. card, The victim was like, no, I don’t.
00:11:14:48 – 00:11:24:20
Keith
I don’t know why he would have it. And he’s not a relative of mine. He’s not a friend of mine. Like, I don’t know who the hell this guy is, and I don’t recognize his name or anything.
00:11:24:20 – 00:11:25:30
Keith
Horrible, horrible
00:11:25:30 – 00:11:28:36
Keith
situation or piece of evidence, in my opinion.
00:11:28:36 – 00:11:45:54
Keith
Last piece of info here. Also in his residence, you’re like, hey, he could go on the Internet with his hotspot, well, he could also get on the Internet via his Comcast communications Internet modem Wi-Fi router that was very well hidden behind a couch with a blanket over it.
00:11:46:07 – 00:11:55:53
Keith
That was his hiding, was throwing a blanket over it. I got a picture of it here in a second and it was on and he could access it and all that kind of stuff. So he can’t just say it was accidentally there, but it wasn’t turned on.
00:11:55:53 – 00:11:58:27
Keith
So let me show you some pictures. Here’s one of the phones.
00:11:58:27 – 00:12:31:02
Keith
And it didn’t specify which phone this is. This looks like an iPhone. If I had to guess just from its home screen, this is another phone that was in his dresser or desk drawer. And now we have a phone or no, this is an iPad. And then we have I think this is like the iPad packaging. And then we have another phone.
00:12:31:02 – 00:12:54:27
Keith
This is the LG. You can see that right on the screen there now. Sorry, sorry. Audio listeners, I know you can’t there’s no these are phones. I don’t know how I can explain phones to you. They’re just standard phones. This is a mobile hotspot. Again, it’s not anything I can really explain to the audio listeners. It’s just a square device that you can use to get on the Internet.
00:12:54:32 – 00:13:17:56
Keith
And then one of the last sets of pictures here, this is the cable modem that was behind his couch with a blanket thrown over it. And audio listeners, it’s just as I described. It’s just looks like a blanket on the floor and it’s very fucking obvious there’s something under it because there’s 800 wires coming out of it going into the wall and the plug and all that kind of stuff, but there’s a blanket over it.
00:13:17:56 – 00:13:37:46
Keith
So it just so it just, just, you know, just so you don’t think it’s a wi fi that it actually was. And they show when you take the blankets off, it is actually this cable modem. And it’s a very standard cable modem that you’ve probably seen in your own home. And then they showed mail that was on his desk.
00:13:37:46 – 00:13:51:06
Keith
And this one, I had to kind of rotate and blow up for you because this you note on here is the important part. It’s not actually the letters, it’s the sticky note. And I’m going to read it for you. It says Put SD card in media
00:13:51:06 – 00:13:59:07
Keith
or I’m sorry, in machine, it will prompt you. Do you want to erase card say yes.
00:13:59:12 – 00:14:20:42
Keith
And that is handwritten on a sticky note. Put SD card in me in machine. It will prompt you. Do you want to erase card? Say yes. Sure sounds like he’s trying to erase evidence to me, but yeah, I’ll leave that to lawyers to argue. Okay. And this is his last bit of mail that they showed you, which is he has receipts for all this shit that he bought.
00:14:20:46 – 00:14:44:29
Keith
He bought it. It’s in his name. Here’s an Apple receipt. He’s got this iCloud storage account. It’s all in his name. You can’t say this wasn’t him. So with that, we are at the end of Act two, the balls. And I hope you agree with me. Yes, the balls. Why would he do all this stuff after he was allowed out of prison for child pornography?
00:14:44:34 – 00:15:05:59
Keith
I cannot explain. I don’t know. But if there was anything you liked in this act, please like subscribe, thumbs up, follow whatever it is on your application that you’re watching or listening to us on. If you haven’t gone to our website, please do its e crime bytes dot com. Bytes spelled the computer way, Y as in yellow milk. And with that, please do come back tomorrow.
00:15:05:59 – 00:15:18:17
Keith
I’m going to get right into Act three, the punishment. And I will tell you what what happened to Timothy after he did all this stuff that I just presented to you. So we’ll see you then. Thanks.
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